Canada’s Two Major Railways to Invest C$500M to Overhaul Grain Hopper Fleet

Canada’s two major railways, Canadian Pacific (CP) and Canadian National (CN), announced plans to invest more than C$500 million to upgrade their grain hopper car fleets. The announcement follows a season rife with shipping backlogs and delays.

Canadian Pacific announced its intent to invest more than C$500 million over the four years to purchase a fleet of new high-capacity grain hopper cars, with 500 cars coming into service this year. The cars are lighter and shorter than existing cars, and will enable the railroad to handle volumes that are 15 percent higher and weights that are 10 percent heavier than it can currently handle.

In a separate announcement, Canadian National stated that it plans to acquire 1,000 new grain hopper cars over the next two years as part of the railway’s strategic capital investment plan to spend C$3.4 billion this year on improvements.

Both the CP and CN state that the planned upgrades have been made possible due to the passing of Bill C-49, Canada’s Transportation Modernization Act.

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